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In Saturday's Iron Bowl, Gus Malzahn did not beat Nick Saban for the third time in six attempts, skewing 52-21. Auburn officially proved that they were not good enough to play with Bama in Tuscaloosa this season.
Iron Bowl has no consequences on the ranking this year. Auburn only played for one or two things: pride and may be Malzahn's work. It does not look like a shot is imminent, but Auburn's tough year and one of Iron Bowl's worst defensive defenses in history has made him look a lot safer than there was before. year. Auburn coaches are judged largely on the way they face Alabama. Abandoning the fourth maximum points in an Iron Bowl will not help his case.
Malzahn finished the Iron Bowl exactly where he spent a lot of time in recent years: in the hot seat, although the exact temperature is unknown.
Malzahn has been under pressure from fans and the media for years, but his team in 2018 failed to rank among the top 10 of the season.
The first year of Malzahn, 2013, was excellent. The prayer at Jordan-Hare and Kick Six took place. Auburn arrived a few seconds after winning the national championship.
The next three years of Malzahn were bad. Auburn lost five or six games in each of them. His only win in the playoffs was the 2015 Birmingham Bowl against Memphis.
The fifth year of Malzahn was excellent for a while. After two untimely defeats, a run of five consecutive victories led to Alabama 's embarrassment in the Plains to take it to the West. But then, Auburn lost to Georgia in the SEC title game and against UCF in the Peach Bowl. It's a season of four losses, although saying that does not do the merit of Auburn for a long time.
And now, the sixth year of Malzahn has been ugly. The No. 9 Tigers beat the No. 6 Washington in a week 1 that seemed huge at the time, but it's now an edifying tale about the games of Week 1. The Running game, Malzahn's best known thing for his talent, has declined sharply. His team will end with no less than five and maybe six defeats.
It seems now that the Kick Six has raised a lot of expectations, which Malzahn could not reach. Auburn has not even been about to replicate once 2013, and some steps have been finished.
Generally, a coach who has just spent five years in the same schools as Malzahn in a school like Auburn would not stay longer. His successor, Gene Chizik, was fired two years after winning a national title, but after a season of 3-9. But it was just a horrible year. The prolonged plateauing of Malzahn was different.
In early November, Auburn's announcement announced that Malzahn would return in 2019.
Allen Greene told reporters at the time when Auburn was 6-3:
"He will be coaching next year and I am confident that he will do it – he has already proven that we can overcome adversity," said Greene. "Every team has it, and I can not wait to work with it for a long time."
There is no reason to think that Greene was lying there. But these things can change quickly and the confidence votes of the sports directors do not usually mean much.
Malzahn has a huge redemption. In many schools this would make it impossible to shoot. But Auburn has envisioned it.
After Malzahn took part in the SEC championship game in 2017, retired Jay Jacobs awarded him a seven-year, $ 49 million contract for a Malzahn buyout. If Auburn fires him, he owes him 75% of the total remaining funds, half of which are due within a month. Cutting ties at the end of the year would mean $ 32 million, which is obscene. Even turning him in Three years would give one of the most expensive repurchases of the sport.
You would think that would automatically isolate Malzahn, but that is not the case. Jason Kirk of SB Nation said Malzahn could have been fired if he lost to Ole Miss in mid-October:
One of the lessons learned from this sport is that one should never underestimate the amount that rich sports fans are willing to spend so that their teams are slightly less likely to lose games. Auburn boosters can afford to help eat Malzahn's contract, although that still does not mean anyone will be happy about its size.
The university president, Steven Leath, is also under fire, someone who knows knows, because Leath helped negotiate with Malzahn's representative, Jimmy Sexton, for this big contract. Jay Jacobs, who was in Auburn at the time, was about to retire.
Maybe the buyback is protecting him for the moment. But that would be a big guess.
For years, Malzahn has gone back and forth between being a prominent man and the toast of the city.
This has sometimes happened during the same season, as when Auburn lost a huge lead to losing against LSU and fell to 5-2 ("Fire Gus!" Administrators apparently thought). Before this Bama match in 2017, Malzahn was seriously considering going to Arkansas if the Tigers lost. Some fans of Bama rightly feared that Malzahn would be driven out of the Plains by a victory:
"I think most Alabama fans hope that Auburn will keep Gus for a very long time," said Roll Bama Roll's Josh Chatham before the game.
We will update this message when the status of Malzahn is clarified.
It could take a while. Who knows.
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